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Tourism Management
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Article history: Corporate reputation is a valuable intangible asset for companies, yet is increasingly difcult to manage
Received 7 November 2013 in an era with hard-to-control online conversations. In this paper, we investigate whether and when a
Accepted 7 September 2014 company's online activities to acquire engaged consumers are benecial for corporate reputation. In a
Available online 30 September 2014
survey among 3531 customers and non-customers of an international airline, we measured consumers'
engagement in the airline's social media activities and perception of corporate reputation. Results show
Keywords:
that consumers' intensity of social media use is positively related to their engagement in the airline's
Corporate reputation
social media activities, especially among customers. Engagement in the social media activities in turn is
Social media
Social networking
positively related to corporate reputation, especially among non-customers. We discuss the implications
Corporate reputation of the results for social media policies in the travel and tourism industry.
Online engagement 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Online brand exposure
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.09.005
0261-5177/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Dijkmans et al. / Tourism Management 47 (2015) 58e67 59
strategy: 87% of the Fortune Global 100's companies are active on at & Pan, 2008), because of the product characteristics of services.
least one social media platform, mainly Twitter (82%) and Facebook Service products are intangible, non-standardized, and need to be
(74%) (Burson-Marsteller, 2012). consumed before they can be fully evaluated (Murray & Schlacter,
The most prevalent motives for companies to use social media 1990). This increases the chance of a gap between customer
are enhancing trustworthiness, brand attitude, and customer expectation and perception (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991), which, in
commitment (Van Noort & Willemsen, 2011; Weinberg & Pehlivan, turn, increases the chance of online complaint behavior on social
2011). Together, the activities aiming at achieving these goals are media sites (Mitra, Reiss, & Capella, 1999).
often referred to as online reputation management, which can be Given the ambiguities of the effects of company social media
dened as the process of positioning, monitoring, measuring, activity, and given that many companies in the travel and tourism
talking, and listening as the organization engages in a transparent industry have decided to become active in social media, it is sur-
and ethical dialogue with its various on-line stakeholders (Jones, prising to see that the results of such activities have received scant
Temperley, & Lima, 2009, p. 934). Online reputation management attention in the academic literature. The goal of the present paper is
involves interacting with people online, creating shareable content, to provide empirical evidence for a relationship between a con-
monitoring what stakeholders are saying, keeping track of their sumer's engagement in company social media activities and
dialogue, addressing negative content found online, and following corporate reputation and to explore determinants of the reach of
up on ideas that are shared through social media. social media activities. Given the different relation of customers vs.
A crucial question, however, that has hitherto not been studied non-customers with a company, and given the different ways
extensively, is whether such social media activities are in fact customer vs. non-customers respond to brand communications
benecial for a company's corporate reputation. In the present (Zauner, Koller, & Fink, 2012), we will also test hypotheses about
study, we investigate whether and when consumers' engagement the differences between customers and non-customers with regard
in a company's social media activities is positively related to to the reach and effect of company social media activities.
perceived corporate reputation.
2.2. Engagement in a company's social media activities
2. Theoretical background
The relationship between consumers' engagement in a com-
2.1. Corporate reputation pany's social media activities and perceived corporate reputation is
one of the main focal points of this study. Many different denitions
One of the main reasons for companies to carry out the kind of and conceptualizations of the engagement concept have been
online activities described above is the assumption that they are published in scholarly literature. The understanding of this phe-
benecial for their (corporate) reputation. Corporate reputation has nomenon has developed signicantly, however a general consensus
been dened as a collective representation of a rm's past has not yet been reached. In studies published to date, engagement
behaviour and outcomes that depicts the rm's ability to render is dened in terms of a combination of cognitive aspects (e.g., being
valued results to multiple stakeholders (Fombrun, Gardberg, & interested in a company's activities), behavioral aspects (partici-
Sever, 2000, p. 243). According to Fombrun, et al. (2000), reputa- pation in the company's activities), and/or emotional aspects
tion is an attitudinal construct that consists of two components: an (feeling positive about a company's activities). The lack of
emotional (affective) component and a rational (cognitive) consensus on the engagement concept is reected in a literature
component. review by Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric, and Ilic (2011), where eight
Corporate reputation matters for several reasons. First, it is a key customer engagement denitions from academic marketing liter-
parameter in the supplier selection process by potential customers ature, twenty-two from social science/management literature, and
(Walsh, Mitchell, Jackson, & Beatty, 2009). Thus, consumers are nineteen from business practice literature were categorized on
more likely to select companies with a positive corporate reputa- cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects. Denitions vary
tion, and are willing to pay more for their products (Graham & greatly, from broad, overarching denitions (e.g., the level of a
Moore, 2007). Second, a positive corporate reputation can create customer's cognitive, emotional and behavioral investment in
market entry barriers for competitors, foster customer loyalty and specic brand interactions (Hollebeek, 2011, p. 565)), to narrow
retention (Nguyen & Leblanc, 2001) and enable a company to denitions focusing on only one perspective (e.g., a behavioral
attract more customers (Gardberg & Fombrun, 2002), which in the manifestation toward the brand or rm that goes beyond trans-
end translates into higher market value (Smith, Smith, & Wang, actions (Verhoef, Reinartz, & Krafft, 2010, p. 247)).
2010). A favorable corporate reputation can also protect a com- In the present study we will focus on the concept of engagement
pany in times of crisis (Shamma, 2012). Lastly, a positive reputation at its most basic level, and refer to consumer's familiarity with a
increases stakeholders' willingness to invest in a company, since it company's social media activities (i.e., cognition) and the online
enables the company to attract higher quality employees and to following of these activities (i.e., behavior). That is, our approach of
gain better returns (Chun, 2005; Vergin & Qoroneh, 1997). the concept can be regarded as the principal starting point (i.e., a
While being active on social media sites may provide benets precondition e one rst needs to be familiar with a company's
for the reputation of companies, there are certainly drawbacks. online activities, and start to follow them) from which subsequent
Social media platforms are no orderly one-way channels for expressions of online engagement behavior towards a company
communication, but rather uncontrolled arenas for participation, may grow (e.g., experiencing or expressing interest/emotions,
which may pose a risk of reputation damage for rms (Aula, 2010). interacting, contributing, participating, etc.).
Users can freely spread opinions and ideas that conict with a Achieving a high level of consumer engagement is viewed as
company's interest, for instance with regard to operational or desirable, because it may enhance a company's reputation and
ethical issues, product quality or customer satisfaction. Even a brand loyalty (Doorn van et al., 2010; Hollebeek, 2011) and pur-
single unhappy customer can cause reputational damage via social chase decisions (Patterson, Yu, & de Ruyter, 2006). The relational
media platforms, which for example United Airlines experienced in consequences of consumer engagement may include commitment,
the United Breaks Guitars case (Tripp & Gre goire, 2011). Service trust, consumers' emotional brand attachment and loyalty (Brodie,
companies e like those in the tourism and travel industry e may be Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013). This is argued to be of added value for
even more vulnerable to such risks than others (Litvin, Goldsmith, companies, especially for those in highly competitive markets that
60 C. Dijkmans et al. / Tourism Management 47 (2015) 58e67
are dominated mainly by price competition, like the tourism and Their brand related beliefs and attitudes are likely to be held with
travel industry (So, King, & Sparks, 2012). Tourism and travel or- more condence and are less likely to change by, for instance,
ganizations can use customer engagement as a counterweight to exposure to a marketing campaign (Smith & Swinyard, 1982). This
competition on price only, to attract more (potential) customers applies in particular to product or service attributes that are a
and to develop customer loyalty (Bowden, 2009). matter of subjective experience (Wright & Lynch, 1995). Indeed,
In sum, an online following of consumers, who actively partic- research shows that the brand image of customers e compared to
ipate in a company's online activities, is regarded to be highly non-customers e depends less on the specics of a single mar-
valuable for a company. Yet, to date no empirical studies have keting campaign (Zauner et al., 2012). Non-customers, in contrast,
directly tested the relation between engagement in a company's have no direct experience with a brand, have only limited inter-
social media activities and corporate reputation. Most research on action with a company, and are therefore more likely to be inu-
social media focuses on the effects of online reviews on consumers enced by indirect experiences such as news reports in traditional
(e.g., Utz, Kerkhof, & Bos van den, 2012; Vermeulen & Seegers, mass media, brand advertisements, and e increasingly e brand
2009), and only a few studies focus on the effect of the social me- activities in social media (Shamma & Hassan, 2009). Therefore, we
dia activities of companies. These latter studies typically do not expect that:
focus on corporate reputation but on related concepts like con-
H3. The above hypothesized positive relationship between
sumer trust, emotional appeal and brand attitude, generally
engagement in a company's social media activities and perception
showing positive effects. For example, webcare interventions to
of corporate reputation is stronger for non-customers than for
negative social media complaints tended to enhance consumers'
customers.
brand evaluations (Van Noort & Willemsen, 2011). In two recent
studies, company-created social media communication showed to With respect to the reach of social media activity, however,
positively affect brand attitude, brand awareness and brand image customers are easier to reach than non-customers. Social media,
(Bruhn, Schoenmueller, & Scha fer, 2012; Schivinski & Dakabrowski, and especially Facebook and Twitter, are increasingly used as
2013). Additionally, frequent visitors of a corporate blog perceived channels for customer service, and social media engagement may
the relational commitment communicated by the organization therefore be more instrumental for customers than for non-
behind the weblog as higher, which in turn related to trust and customers, for example to ask service related questions, to
satisfaction (Kelleher, 2009). complain or compliment the service, or to receive information
Based on the above, we expect that followers of a company's updates. Furthermore, a company may use ofine communication
social media activities should develop a more positive perceived channels to actively motivate customers to use their social media
corporate reputation. Earlier research on traditional ofine media channels, which is more likely followed by customers who are
shows that exposure to news with a positive tone of voice about a actively using social media. Hence, we expect that:
company is associated with a more positive perception of corporate
H4. The above hypothesized relation between intensity of social
reputation (Meijer & Kleinnijenhuis, 2006; Wartick, 1992).
media use and engagement in a company's social media activities is
Assuming that companies will mainly share positive and enter-
stronger for customers than for non-customers.
taining company news through social media, and that the com-
pany's webcare team is conducive and helpful to customers, Our hypotheses on the relationships between intensity of social
followers of these activities will witness positive activity more media use, engagement in a company's social media activities and
frequently than non-followers. Therefore, we expect: corporate reputation, and the moderating role of being a customer
(versus a non-customer) are summarized in Fig. 1.
H1. A positive relation between consumers' level of engagement
in a company's social media activities (i.e., low, medium, high
engagement) and perception of corporate reputation. 3. The case company
The impact of social media activities is determined not only by
the ability to inuence perceptions of corporate reputation, but also Airlines currently make up the most socially devoted industry,
by the number of people that can be reached with these activities. A and several airlines are among the most active companies in using
likely determinant for consumers to start engaging in a company's social media (Socialbakers, 2013). Therefore, airlines constitute an
social media activity is consumers' general social media usage. ideal setting for studying the relation between engagement in a
Indeed, recent work by Leung and Bai (2013) shows that the in- company's social media activities and corporate reputation. For the
tensity of one's social media use and engagement in a company's present study we chose KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a case com-
social media activities are strongly related. We therefore expect: pany, because it is very active on a range of online platforms, has
enough online followers, and is regarded as a frontrunner in this
H2. A positive association between consumers' intensity of social eld.
media use and engagement in a company's social media activities.
KLM, as part of Air France KLM, is a major international player in To ensure a sufcient number of social media users and people
the aviation industry, and is a well-known company in The engaged in the social media activities of KLM, a second and third
Netherlands with a general brand awareness of more than 90% subsample was selected by posting a message on KLM's Facebook-
(NBTC-NIPO Research, 2011). Starting with the eruption of the and Twitter page with a call to participate in the study and a hy-
Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajo kull e with the resulting ash cloud e perlink to the online questionnaire. This resulted in 304 partici-
in April 2010 and the communication challenges caused by this pants from Facebook (9% of total N) and 176 from Twitter (5% of
natural disaster, KLM has adopted social media as a serious and total N).
rapidly maturing communication channel. Initially, KLM's social Finally, to ensure a sufcient number of KLM customers, a fourth
media activities aimed at customers only, but at a later stage the subsample was taken from members of KLM's loyalty program. A
target group was broadened to include all other interested con- total of 6564 members were invited by e-mail to participate in the
sumers. At present, KLM is considered worldwide as a frontrunner study with a hyperlink to the questionnaire. The response rate was
in the commercial use of social media (IFITT, 2012) with e in nearly 15%, resulting in 974 participants (28% of total N).
January 2014 e ve million Facebook friends and more than The participants of the Facebook, Twitter and KLM loyalty pro-
770,000 Twitter followers. KLM has been awarded several prizes for gram subsamples did not receive any compensation for taking part
its pioneer activities in this eld (e.g., IFITT Innovation Award in this survey.
(2012), SimpliFlying Award (2013), DDMA Customer Data Award
(2012), Dutch Interactive Award (2013)). Apart from its presence 4.2. Procedure
on Facebook and Twitter, KLM's social media activities consist of a
blog and active presence on YouTube, Pinterest, Google and By clicking the hyperlink in the invitation mail (Motivaction
Instagram. Consumers can contact KLM 24/7 via Facebook and panel and KLM loyalty members) or via the hyperlink on KLM's
Twitter in 9 different languages. Social media within KLM is orga- Facebook and Twitter page, participants were directed to our online
nized around three pillars: servicing (answering questions and questionnaire. After receiving thanks for their interest and co-
responding of customers), brand & engagement (entertainment, operation, the participants answered the survey questions. The
news, co-creation activities) and commerce (providing relevant questionnaire started with questions about perceived corporate
offers and deals) (Henkes, 2013). These three categories are of equal reputation, followed by questions about participants' intensity of
importance in KLM's social media strategy, but the servicing social media use, and their level of engagement in the social media
component focuses exclusively on customers, who are actively activities of the case company. Depending on the route in the
encouraged by KLM to follow and approach them on Facebook and questionnaire and the corresponding number of posed questions
Twitter. participants, completion took about 8e10 min.
(correlations > .5) on the dominant factor. Therefore, on the basis of 2 Medium engagement group: Participants who were somewhat
this analysis we averaged the responses of the 18 items to produce to very familiar with the company's social media activities, but
one index of perception of corporate reputation (a .94, M 3.53, who were not following the company on Facebook and/or
SD .51), with high scores indicating a positive perceived corpo- Twitter.
rate reputation. 3 High engagement group: Participants who were somewhat to
very familiar with the company's social media activities, and
who were following the company on Facebook and/or Twitter.
4.3.2. Intensity of social media use
All participants were asked about their Facebook and Twitter This results in a measure e engagement in the company's social
use. They were asked whether they had a prole on one or both of media activities e on a three point scale, ranging from low
these sites and, if the answers were afrmative, how often they engagement (n 2405; 68% of N), via medium engagement
used Facebook and Twitter for reading others' messages (passive (n 306; 9% of N) to high engagement (n 820; 23% of N).
use per medium) as well as for posting messages themselves (active
use per medium), on a scale of 0e5 (with answer categories
0 Don't use this platform, 1 Less than once a week, 2 1e2 5. Results
times per week, 3 3e4 times a week, 4 Once a day and
5 Several times a day). To check whether these 4 items formed a Table 1 gives an overview of the descriptive statistics and
valid reective construct, we subjected the items to exploratory Spearman's rank correlations between the main variables in this
factor analysis. This revealed one dominant factor with a pre- study, the moderator variable customer (yes or no), and partici-
extraction eigenvalue of 2.07 (accounting for 52% of the variance) pants' gender and age. Gender and age did not have any direct
and one smaller factor with an eigenvalue of 1.01. The elbow in the association with perception of the company's reputation. However,
scree plot suggested the use of one factor. In the component matrix, there was a negative correlation between age and intensity of social
all items loaded signicantly on one factor (with correlations media use (r .34) and between age and engagement in social
ranging from .61 to .80). Therefore, we concluded that the four item media activities (r .20): older participants are less active on
scores (combination Facebook/Twitter and reading/posting) could social media and less engaged in KLM's social media activities.
be reected in one single measure e intensity of social media use e Being a customer was weakly related to intensity of social media
and the four items were averaged. The resulting measure was use (r .07), but strongly related to both social media engagement
ranging from 0 to 5 (a .80, M 1.30, SD 1.32). (r .38) and to perceived corporate reputation (r .24). Customers
tend to be more intensely engaged in the social media activities of
KLM than non-customers, and have a more positive perception of
4.3.3. Engagement in company's social media activities KLM's reputation. This was also apparent from the scores of cus-
As described in the theoretical background, we dene con- tomers and non-customers on the three main variables in this
sumers' engagement in a company's social media activities at its study: independent sample t-tests showed that customers
basic level, i.e., on (a) consumer's familiarity with a company's (M 1.41, SD 1.41) had a higher score on intensity of social media
social media activities (cognition) and (b) the online following of use than non-customers (M 1.17, SD 1.18); (t(3483) 5.4,
these activities (behavior). p < .001) and on engagement in the company's social media ac-
Our measure of engagement reects these two aspects. Con- tivities: Mcust .83, SDcust .92 versus Mnon-cust .20, SDnon-
cerning the familiarity with KLM's social media activities, we asked cust .55; (t(3483) 24.0, p < .001). Furthermore, customers
participants to what extent they were familiar with the company's showed a higher score with regard to perceived corporate reputa-
social media activities, on a 4-point scale (ranging from 1 Not tion: Mcust 3.63, SDcust .52 versus Mnon-cust 3.42, SDnon-
familiar, 2 Somewhat familiar, 3 Familiar and 4 Very cust .47 (t(3484) 12.7, p < .001).
familiar). With regard to the following of KLM on social media The correlations presented in Table 1 also provide the rst test of
sites, we asked On which social networking sites do you follow our H1 and H2. In support of H1, engagement in social media ac-
KLM?, with Facebook and Twitter among the answer options. The tivities and perception of corporate reputation were positively
answers to these two questions were combined to reect the par- related (r .28). In support of H2, intensity of social media use and
ticipants' level of engagement, resulting in a classication of three engagement in the company's social media activities were posi-
groups: tively related (r .45). Intensity of social media use and perceived
corporate reputation also showed a positive relation (r .11), albeit
1 Low engagement group: Participants who were not familiar to a much lesser extent.
with the company's social media activities, and who were not To further test our hypotheses and the relationships in the
following the company on Facebook and/or Twitter. proposed conceptual model (Fig. 1), we used a two-step approach.
Table 1
Descriptive statistics and Spearman's rank correlations (N 3531).
Scale min. Scale max. Mean SD (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
As a rst step, with regard to H1 and H2, we tested the relations in Table 2
the conceptual model (Fig. 1) without customer (y/n) as a moder- Mediational regression analysis of KLM reputation (N 3531).
ator. As a second step, and to test H3 and H4, we added the Engagement Reputation
moderator. We performed a regression-based path analysis using (mediator) (DV)
PROCESS, a computational tool for estimating conditional indirect B (SE B) B (SE B)
effects in moderated mediation models (Hayes, 2013; Hayes & Constant .64 (.06)** 3.41 (.04)**
Matthes, 2009; Preacher, Rucker, & Hayes, 2007). PROCESS gener- Gender (m/f) .24 (.02)** .02 (.02)
Age .04 (.01)** .01 (.01)
ates bootstrap condence intervals for total and specic indirect
Intensity of participants' social .30 (.01)** .01 (.01)
effects of the predictor(s) on the dependent variable through one or media use
more mediator variable(s). Bootstrapping has advantages over Engagement in company's social e .16 (.01)**
other analyses because it provides more accurate inferences and it media activities
is possible to apply to statistics with sampling distributions that are Direct effect of intensity of social .01 (.01)
difcult to derive. Furthermore, with PROCESS, additional calcula- media use
tions that are not carried out automatically by conventional Indirect (conditional) effect of .05 (.00)
intensity of social media use
regression routines are performed in one analysis (Hayes, 2012).
95% CI .04e.06
Thus, we used PROCESS to establish the mediational effects in the Total effect of intensity of social .04
model (i.e., participants' engagement in social media activities of media use
company) as well as the moderating effects of customers vs. non- R2 .26 .07
customers.
**p < .001; *p < .01.
In step 1 e testing H1 and H2 e we examined the model (see
Note. Regression performed by using PROCESS tool, model 4 (Hayes, 2013). Inde-
Fig. 1) without the moderating role of customer (y/n). As depicted pendent variable (participants' social media usage intensity) and mediator (partic-
in Fig. 1, we expected that consumers' intensity of social media use ipants' engagement in company's social media activities) are mean centered to
would, via engagement in the company's social media activities, be render a parameter estimate that is interpretable within the range of the data.
indirectly related to perceived corporate reputation. We regressed Note. B unstandardized effect size. Bootstrap resamples 10,000.
ment. In the second part of the regression (the right section in Constant .30 (.05)** 3.50 (.04)**
Table 2), corporate reputation was the dependent variable. In line Gender (m/f) .12 (.02)** .03 (.02)
Age .04 (.01)** .00 (.01)
with H1, there was a positive association between engagement and
Intensity of participants' social .25 (.01)** .00 (.01)
reputation (b .16, SE .01, p < .001). The direct effect of intensity media use
of social media use was not signicant nor were the effects of age Customer (n/y) .56 (.02)** .12 (.02)**
and gender, but there was a signicant indirect effect, through Engagement in company's social e .15 (.01)**
engagement, on corporate reputation (95% CI .04e.06). The direct media activities
Customer intensity of social .26 (.02)** e
and indirect effects together explained 7% of the variance in
media use
corporate reputation. Customer engagement in social e .10 (.03)**
In step 2 of our analysis e with regard to H3 and H4 e we media activities
included customers versus non-customers as a moderator in the Direct effect of intensity of social .01 (.01)
analysis. The results are shown in Table 3. As in the rst step, the media use
regression is conducted in two steps. In the rst step, the predictors Indirect (conditional) effect of
explained 40% of the variance in engagement. The intensity of social intensity of social media use:
Non-customers .02 (.00)
media use was positively related to engagement (b .25, SE .01,
95% CI .02e.03
p < .001). Furthermore, customers were more engaged than non- Customers .04 (.02)
customers (b .56, SE .02, p < .001). There was a signicant 95% CI .03e.05
interaction of customer and intensity of social media use (b .26, Total effect of social media use:
SE .02, p < .001). The interaction is depicted in Fig. 2. The gure Non-customers .03
Customers .05
shows that, in line with H4, among customers the intensity of social
R2 .40 .09
different relationship stage than non-customers, which is also re- the effectiveness of a company's efforts in communicating with
ected in differences in the antecedents and consequences of brand online inuencers (Gillin, 2008). To substantiate this suggestion, a
trust for both groups (Sichtmann, 2007). Our results show that longitudinal study that follows nonecustomers for a longer period
customers have more positive perceptions of the company's repu- of time is needed.
tation than non-customers, regardless their intensity of social As all studies, this research also has its limitations. First, KLM
media use and engagement in the company's social media Royal Dutch Airlines e the case company we used in this study e is
activities. very active in the eld of social media and has a large general brand
The differences between costumers and non-customers awareness in The Netherlands. This may attract people not being a
together show a rather different picture for both groups with re- customer of KLM, but with a more than average interest in this
gard to social media engagement and corporate reputation. The company or its online activities. In that sense, KLM may not be
higher reach of the company's social media activities among cus- representative for the average company, especially because this
tomers is likely the result of both being encompassed by the study is mainly based on participants residing in KLM's home
company's attempts to motivate customers to use their social me- market.
dia channels, and the higher persuasiveness of these appeals A second limitation is that our denition of customer is
because of the higher instrumentality of these channels. As debatable: the cut-off point for being regarded as a customer was
mentioned earlier, customers have obvious reasons e particularly placed at having own with KLM within the two years before this
in the case of KLM e to make use of social media channels since study. This means that, for example, a participant who ew with
they provide easy access to a quick, responsive and 24/7 customer KLM for decades, but not in the last two years is not considered a
service. In our study, in the subsample representative for the Dutch customer. Conversely, a one-time yer with KLM in the last two
population, of the customers active on social media (i.e., reading years is categorized as a customer in our study. This may have
Facebook/Twitter updates minimal once per week), 45% is familiar inuenced the results of this research by over or underestimating
with the social media activities of KLM and 36% is following KLM on the effects of being a (non)customer of KLM.
Facebook and/or Twitter. This underlines the potential of social Third, in this study a very basic conceptualization of engage-
media platforms for customer service purposes. Additionally, ment was used, i.e., familiarity with a company's social media ac-
customer support in social media may have important side effects tivities and following those activities on Twitter and/or Facebook.
for non-customers, who now witness customers being supported Although following a brand in social media is a frequently used way
on Twitter or Facebook, which may strengthen their perception of consumers engage online with a brand, it is also a rather minimal
the level of customer orientation of the company. Non-customers form of engagement. In order to more fully investigate the impact
experience the candid way employees of the company respond of a company's social media activities on corporate reputation,
with a conversational human voice to several types of online future research should include a broader range of consumer
feedback, like questions, compliments, and complaints (Kelleher & engagement measures.
Miller, 2006; Lee, Hwang, & Lee, 2006). In earlier studies, conver- As a last limitation, participants with a high level of engagement
sational human voice was shown to be of added value for brand in the company may have been different beforehand with regard to
evaluation (Van Noort & Willemsen, 2011), and candidness in on- perceived reputation. In the current study we only studied relations
line dialogues showed to enhance trust and familiarity (Lee et al., between variables and not the direction of the relations. As
2006). Together, this may inuence the perception of corporate mentioned before, we recommend further research to shed light on
reputation. this. While, in the present study, we suggest that engagement in a
The relationship between social media engagement and company's social media activities is a predictor of perception of
corporate reputation is more pronounced among non-customers. corporate reputation e even stronger for non-customers than for
This suggests that companies should actively focus their social customers e the direction of causality in this relation may be
media activities on non-customers for a number of reasons. First, opposite, and is most likely to be bidirectional. Thus, we recognize
the largest part of a company's target markets consists of non- the necessity for a longitudinal study that measures engagement in
customers. Companies need to continuously explore opportu- social media activities in relation to corporate reputation in the
nities to sell to new customers since at some point existing cus- same sample at different time intervals, to draw more explicitly
tomers may fall away. In the short term, rms may not see market causal claims about the exact operation of the conceptual model
performance effects (higher sales or market share) from their social proposed and supported here. Despite these limitations, this study
media activities focused on non-customers. Nevertheless, in the contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between
longer term e when it may come to new supplier selection e online consumers' intensity of social media use, their engagement in
engaged non-customers may turn more easily into customers, since companies' social media activities and corporate reputation. We
corporate reputation is an important aspect in purchase intentions showed that consumers' level of online engagement is positively
(Keh & Xie, 2009). associated with perception of corporate reputation. Moreover, this
Second, important market changes are often rst observable study emphasizes the importance for a company of not only
among non-customers (Drucker, 1994). Knowing and understand- engaging online with its customers, but not the least also with its
ing the general public's changing needs and preferences is critical non-customers. The ndings provide evidence that for companies,
for companies. This stresses the need for companies to keep in social media platforms really are a stage to engage with both
touch with non-customers. Social media platforms can offer an consumer groups, therewith enhancing their corporate reputation.
early warning system, which, at a relatively low expense, is also
useful for ideation and co-creation (Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft,
& Singh, 2010).
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Tripp, T. M., & Gre goire, Y. (2011). When unhappy customers strike back on the Corne Dijkmans is Senior Lecturer Digital Marketing &
Internet. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(3), 37e44. New Media at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences
Utz, S., Kerkhof, P., & Bos van den, J. (2012). Consumers rule: how consumer reviews in The Netherlands, and is currently taking his PhD as an
inuence perceived trustworthiness of online stores. Electronic Commerce external researcher at the department of Communication
Research and Applications, 11(1), 49e58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ Science at VU University Amsterdam. His research at VU
j.elerap.2011.07.010. Amsterdam is focused on the effects of the use of social
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dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2011.07.001. online brand exposure. He is also participating in the EU
Vergin, R., & Qoroneh, M. (1997). Corporate reputation and the stock market. Lifelong Learning Program with regard to lecturer train-
Business Horizon, 41, 19e26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0007-6813(98)90060-X. ings to improve the attractiveness and quality of man-
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Peter Kerkhof currently holds the chair in social media at
Walden, P., Carlsson, C., & Papageorgiou, A. (2011). Travel information search e the
the department of Communication Science, VU University
presence of social media. In 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He also holds a chair in
Sciences (Vol. 0, pp. 1e10). Los Alamitos, CA, USA: IEEE Computer Society. http://
Customer Media at the Amsterdam School of Communi-
dx.doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2011.458.
cation Research at the University of Amsterdam. He ob-
Walsh, G., Mitchell, V.-W., Jackson, P. R., & Beatty, S. E. (2009). Examining the an-
tained his PhD in social psychology in 1997. His recent
tecedents and consequences of corporate reputation: a customer perspective.
research interests focus on the uses of social media by
British Journal of Management, 20(2), 187e203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-
consumers and companies, and on the conversations that
8551.2007.00557.x.
they engage in on social media.
Wartick, S. L. (1992). The relationship between intense media exposure and change
in corporate reputation. Business and Society, 31(1), 33.
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socialhabit.com/secure/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Social-Habit-2012-
by-Edison-Research.pdf.
Weinberg, B. D., & Pehlivan, E. (2011). Social spending: managing the social media
mix. Business Horizons, 54(3), 275e282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.bushor.2011.01.008.
Wright, A. A., & Lynch, J. G. (1995). Communication effects of advertising versus Camiel Beukeboom is an assistant professor at the
direct experience when both search and experience attributes are present. Department of Communication Science at VU University
Journal of Consumer Research, 21(4), 708e718. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/ Amsterdam. He obtained his PhD in Social Psychology in
2489726. 2003 at the same University. Currently he teaches Inter-
Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information personal Communication with a special focus on mediated
search. Tourism Management, 31(2), 179e188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ communication. His research is for a large part also related
j.tourman.2009.02.016. to this topic. He conducts research on the use of media in
Zauner, A., Koller, M., & Fink, M. (2012). Sponsoring, brand value and social media. interpersonal contact; on the use of Social Network sites
Revista de Administraa ~o de Empresas, 52(6), 681e691. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/ like Facebook and Twitter, and on language use on Twitter
S0034-75902012000600009. and consumer fora. He also studies the consequences of
the increasing intensity of mobile phone use, and the ways
in which organizations can successfully intervene in social
media (webcare).